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It’s ok if you have tried before. Stopped and started again. There is no limit on how many times you can try, and you don’t need to start up where you left off. Whether you once had a daily practice of 60-90 minutes or have just decided you wanted to try to practice at home, here are the basics you need to get on your mat and start feeling great.

First you need some space, not just physical space but emotional space, a feeling of readiness and willingness, and space in your day.

The physical space is the easiest. I’ve had various degrees of ideal spaces to practice in my different homes, now my space isn’t ideal. It’s cluttered with toys and doesn’t overlook mountains and rivers or other inspiring scenery, but it works. Some mornings there is about a million little legos on my would be sacred yoga space, but I just move over a bit, and practice amongst the creativity and exploration that took place the day before and some how didn’t get picked up. It’s not a big deal really, and most importantly it’s not a deal breaker. I still practice.

Emotional space, can be simple. Decide to get out of your own way. Ignore the excuses. The excuses won’t go away but your relationship to them can. Emotions can also be attached to expectations, wanting to practice a certain way, for a certain amount of time to achieve a certain outcome. Just thinking about all that can leave you feeling wiped out and uninspired. Let the actual practice lead the way, create simple daily actions, which will create good vibes. Eventually, maybe immediately, maybe not, those good vibes and positive associations will drive you and you’ll forget the other more external goals. Your practice will be your practice and it’ll be wonderfully simple.

OK, now to manage the time issue. We all are busy-busy all the time. But you aren’t going to let this silly fact of life stop you. What I suggest is plan to do some yoga postures for about 7 minutes. You know you can do that. Just try to do what comes to mind, what feels good for 7 minutes. Include a 1 minute savasana at the end. Start here and see if over time 7 minutes becomes a little longer. Just give yourself the chance to do yoga for 7 minutes. I chronically avoided my daily practice because it wasn’t going to be long enough, until I started just trying to go for 7 minutes, and it’s gotten up to about 20 minutes. It means I wake up a little earlier, and some mornings it is still just 7 minutes but it’s enough, and I feel motivated to keep it up and miss if it I ever don’t get the chance to practice –which happens, but doesn’t stop the practice.